I’ve just come from a lovely out-of-town trip with my husband and our lifelong friends and was offline for 2 days (I have a wonderful life outside FB—unlike a lot of these keyboard warriors. Such losers.).

I only got home now, logged in and saw all the trash on my wall. And I see that monsters of the disente variety have descended on my wall and used it as a way to spread their particular gospel of hate. I haven’t read a lot. Just a handful—and the rest, I will ignore and/or delete. Once I find the time.

(Not tonight. I have books I want so bad to read. Also, I want you to have more time to read through the hateful comments, if you so wish—disabuse yourself of the notion that ONLY pro-Dutertes are capable of poison and hate. And, too, here’s a truth you must keep in mind: none of that poison is about me but everything about the commenter )

Here’s the thing.

There are only 6 opinions that matter to me in the whole world. That would be my husband’s, my 3 children’s, and my 2 dogs’.

The disclaimer and the defense. What has she done? Nothing to begin with. She lobbied for a Cabinet post, got it and did nothing. She vowed to cooperate with the President but didn't.

Attendant to the responsibility of being a Cabinet member is to stick to the policies laid down by the President. Yet she disagreed with the President in the manner in which the drug war is being conducted and the Marcos burial. As the President stated last night, the final straw came when she attended a anti-Marcos burial rally where calls for the ouster of Duterte were made. In her mind, she thought of herself as co-equal to the President. She's not. As a lawyer, she should be very familiar with the constitutional provisions on the duties and responsibilities of the Vice-President.

There is no stipulation that she is entitled to a Cabinet post. She serves at the pleasure of the President and is bound to toe the administration line. Why does she deserve the vilification and pillory? Because she…

I mean, let her have her undeservedly stupid vacation in whatever goddamn hell she has chosen for herself and her kin. After all, being VP is really hard. Imagine the agony of waiting for the president to die. Put yourself in her place and surely you would also fret and fiddle on a daily basis. Your first question as soon as you wake up - how's the president? - is so jarring to the senses, to say the least.

2nd, why would we even demand her to help her fellow Bicolanos if she believes she has more important things to do than that? Why force something that is not innate in her being, and why should we insist on her contrived portrayal as a "tsinelas garbed public servant fighting for the laylayan ng lipunan?!!!"

This is the problem when we are smitten by image and form rather than substance. When we are bombarded with images of bus rides while cradling an LV bag…

Sure, disaster management is not part of the job description of a VP. And true, she doesn't have to be in an area of devastation helping out and all that.

All she is, after all, is VP and the only job of a VP is to be ready to be President if the President is unable to perform his duties as president for whatever reason there may be. Kung baga sa beauty contest, VP is 1st runner up. Dakilang spare tire. Not exactly a small job.

But while the President breathes or is not successfully ousted (ehem), the VP can spend her days looking at the kisame and count butikis and no one- least of all me- will fault her and call her a slacker or write pieces with titles like "The Woefully Inept Leni Robredo Part 2".

Here's the thing though. Bicol is her bailiwick. These are people Leni Robredo owes her political career to. When she had no one, she had them. They gave her a most resounding YES by continuously voting her into offfice.

In 2013, the Leytenos were enraged when their leaders were not around before, during, and after Yolanda. The Yolanda issue was a litmus test, and became both the downfall and the rise of many of our politicians.

Mar lost the Presidency and Digong won it in huge part because of Yolanda.

Mar lost his credibility when he failed during the relief and rehab phases. Digong earned major brownie points for being one of the first government workers to be on the site of ground zero. Here was a local mayor capable of greater things was a message that reverberated and heard and understood around the Philippines.

President Aquino was slammed for his politicking and the government's tragic failure in fixing the problem. Binay had the chance to make his mark, but he never saw the golden opportunity to show his leadership in the aftermath of Yolanda.

Mayor Alfred Romualdez was crucified in the press for being at his beach house when reports of storm surges…

The threat of a return to Martial Law and one-man-rule is the worst Christmas gift to the Filipino people.
To refer to specific provisions in the 1987 Constitution prohibiting such as a “reckless reaction” to the Marcos regime is an insult to the experience of the Filipino nation that endured great suffering and hardship under the Martial Law regime.
Moreover, for President Duterte to challenge the democratic safeguards of the very constitution he swore to uphold on June 30, 2016 is appalling.
Let us remain vigilant against the threat of Martial Law, and fight against any move that will curtail our freedoms.
This is not a battle we will take sitting down. As Filipinos, we have demonstrated our courage to stand up and make our voices heard for the sake of protecting our freedom and fighting for the truth.
This message from the "vice president" of the Philippines was originally posted on LeniRobredo.com.

I grew up in a community along Aurora Blvd. near Kanto Katipunan in Quezon City in the Philippines during a time when most of us treated each other like Family. We went outside to play, we got dirty and we didn't eat fast food....we ate fried bananas and boiled sweet potatoes, fresh vegetables and home cooked meals.

We played Taguan, Habulan, Agawan Base, Mother May I, Touch The Color.., Jack Stones , Marbles, Tex, Bahay-bahayan, Luto-lutuan, Chinese Garter, Patintero, Piko (hopscotch), Shato, Tubigan, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Roller Skated, Scootered and raced against each other in the street. There was no bottled water, we drank from the garden hose. We watched cartoons on Saturday morning and lolo's favorite 'Oras ng Ligaya' in the evenings on our black & white TV. The 'Wild, Wild West' was lola's choice.

We rode our bikes for hours without a cell phone, climbed on trees to get Guava and Santol. We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING not even walking ho…

This is just so fucking stupid. Sandro himself doesn't have anything to do with his grandfather's alleged crimes, yet they are bashing him for it. Shit, he wasn't even alive when the alleged crimes took place. Sandro's only crime (in some people's eyes) is having the Marcos surname.

And the bashers think they're so witty because they managed to tweet some insults against a kid who happened to like Rogue One. They even have the gall to call themselves "disente" when this is simply being a bunch of really bad hecklers.

Did Duterte really justify the killing of bad journalists? Who are we to judge? A wish to kill someone who threatens your existence or way of life is human nature. This is the reason we have laws. Laws are pieces of paper that separate civilised society from our animal heritage. Thing is, of the almost one million years that Homo Sapiens (and the tens of millions of years our parent Hominid genus) existed on this planet, civilisation existed for just 10,000 years at the most. And out of those 10,000 years of recorded human civilisation, only the generations who lived in the last couple of hundred enjoyed the nebulous notion of “human rights”.

And he is what you guys would call ‘dilawan’. (I’ve never used that word. I don’t like lumping people in groups because I don’t like being lumped in groups too. I feel less of a person and more of an M&M when this is done to me.) What’s more this crush of mine is, clearly, solidy, elitist.

However, he is no asshole. Eh kaya ko nga naging crush. I don’t go for assholes no. He seems so solid and such a good family man. And too, intelligent, witty, funny, kind. He gives me belly laughs and he makes me think hard about issues of the day and. Because he’s my crush, my antenna’s up when it’s him talking. And that 'crush' card is what makes me listen to him far more than I would if he weren’t my crush.

And then I have another crush.

This dude is handsome beyond belief and sexy as hell. And kind too. He, however, thinks Ferdinand Marcos was a great president and we’ve had discussions about this and it was with him that I first truly listened about “…

I have to admit – and I know this is a terrible thing to say – those 6000 murder victims don’t bother me overmuch. Pinoys have been killing each other for centuries over the slightest trivial quarrel. I’m convinced that at least 10% of the population have borderline psychopathic personalities (manifested as a complete lack of empathy for others, black-and-white thinking, limited range of emotions, and poor moral reasoning skills).

The fact is, those 6000 killings would have happened with or without Duterte; they probably did, but went unrecorded. With or without Duterte, there are thousands of Filipinos who, simply because of who and what they are, are likely to die a violent death at the hands of either their neighbors or the police. Such is life in the 4th world.

Since nobody knows (and doesn’t want to find out) who exactly is doing the killing, and who the victims were, the whole debate about ‘justice’ is pointless. There is no such thing in the Philippines and probably won’t be u…

Heartbreaking stories of addicts turning themselves in at police stations only to be shot dead in their own homes weeks, days or even just hours later. A seemingly endless stream of accusations from the families of defenseless victims with the same narrative: the drugs and guns were planted after the murder. Over and over, we hear the painful cries from loved ones saying they didn't fight back and were never going to.

The biggest obstacle of the War On Drugs isn't shabu. At this point it's not even the drugs themselves.

It's the crooked cops.

It's the corruption in a national police force that runs so deep and involves officers on all levels who are now in an intense and desperate rat race to kill the powerless to self-preserve.

Such a tricky situation for Duterte because I know he's aware of this and hates it profoundly, yet is forced to speak in sweeping generalizations. He's forced to tell ALL policemen that he will always have their backs to ensure tha…

Amazing how Tatad can go insane over Duterte's first six months as opposed to Aquino's six years. Is Duterte really that bad a President or is he that good which is why he merits being asked to step down or kicked out of office? Even the SWS can't make his approval ratings go below 65% even now that they're using net approval ratings as their basis of reference.

What is it with Duterte that even now the Reds, with whom the government is negotiating for peace, is now going after him despite all the good faith he's shown to them even before he was sworn into office? It has something to do with his being the destroyer of established norms. In the last six months, he has managed to get Marcos buried, put a ceasefire in place among the insurgents and the secessionists, chart an independent foreign policy, ease tensions in the South China Sea and promote unity in ASEAN by breaking away from the US as America's lapdog in the region. He's also addressing a breakdo…

We would like to correct several unsubstantiated claims made by Ms. Lorraine T. Badoy on Facebook.

According to her post, a supposed "HUDCC employee" informed her that Vice President Leni Robredo did not meet with Key Shelter Agencies until October 2016.

This is FALSE.

VP Leni had briefings with Key Shelter Agencies (KSAs) beginning with HLURB on August 26, 2016. This was followed by briefings with NHA on August 31, 2016, SHFC and HDMF on September 16, 2016, HGC on September 28, 2016, then NHMFC on October 5, 2016.

VP Leni also attended the Senate Committee hearing on the housing sector's budget together with all the heads of the KSAs on September 7, 2016 as well as the plenary budget deliberations for HUDCC and the KSAs at the House of Representatives on September 30, 2016. In addition, she met with all KSAs on September 19, 2016, to discuss the agencies' planned response for the victims of Typhoon Ferdie in Batanes.

To the writers/bloggers out there who are obviously taking advantage of the President's pain and his use of Fentanyl just to further their yellow agenda, shame on you! Pray that you will not suffer slipped spinal disc and terrible migraine, among other illnesses.

You make a big deal of the 4 or 5 times he missed a speaking engagement (due to sickness) this year but did not inform your readers as to how many more important activities and events he in fact was able to attend to. You also did not include how many speaking engagements he successfully delivered as against the 4 he missed.

I may not have the exact figures at this time, but this much I can tell: He usually works from 12NN to 3AM (that's about 15 hours daily); attends and delivers speeches in 2-5 events a day; and yes, even presides late night or early dawn meetings with his staff. This on top of attending other important activities like visiting the wounded soldiers, checking on the situation of those affected by ty…

It's quite clear now that the Reds and the Yellows are trying to paint Duterte into a dilemma with two horns. They're going to use human rights and the Marcoses as the two main issues against him.

The second stage of the vilification campaign in media has begun with another story in the New York Times headlined They're Slaughtering Us Here. Right after this story was another by AFP which detailed how the bodies of the dead pushers and addicts are piling up in funeral parlors and morticians are growing weary of them daily volume of bodies they have to embalm.

The strategy is get Western countries to exert pressure on the Duterte administration to stop the killings. The Reds and the Yellows have come out openly with strong statements; Senator De Lima has openly accused the President of being a murderer. The Reds have called on Duterte to respect human rights and stop the killings. They have, for good measure, thrown in accusations that some of their grassroots organizers ha…

As a government official serving the Duterte administration, I'd like to share my 5 month work experience, so that you guys get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes.

After the President signed the EO on FOI, he instructed the PCOO to oversee implementation. There was no budget for FOI in the 2016 GAA. (None also for 2017 because the previous admin prepared next year's budget) There was also no personnel whatsoever for a project monitoring office. And we were given only 120 days to implement the program.

Let me repeat.

No money. No people. And very little time.

But we did it.

Because the president told us to do so.

We scraped for funds here and there. We asked for technical assistance from other agencies like DICT and DBM. We convinced people to volunteer for FOI. And we worked hard, day in, day out.

With what we had, we conducted more than a dozen FOI workshops, drafted model FOI manuals, printed FOI forms, launched a working FOI website, and had 95% FOI Manual compl…

I want to know because I voted and campaigned for her and she owes me.

Yup, SHE OWES ME. As do all our public servants. Whether or not you voted for them. But when I vote and campaign for someone, I especially want to know if I'd been duped and what it is really I got in exchange for the precious vote I gave her.

Because ever since criticizing her, I got a bunch of messages from people claiming she was a slacker.

I vet those messages but one of these messages, I cannot ignore because it is from someone who actually worked under her in her short stint as HUDCC chair.

The HUDCC has 6 key agencies under it: PAG IBIG, the Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC)​, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), the National Housing Authority (NHA), the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC), the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC))

And my source alleges that when the Vice President claims she attended all board meetings…

What’s going on now in the Duterte admin is like a replay of how the yellows and the US engineered Marcos’s downfall, except this time, Pinoys have their eyes wide open.

It’s like God is letting us relive what went on in 1983-86, so we will know what happened outside the one-sided yellow narrative we’ve been taught to believe for 30 years.

For example, word has it that Leila de Lima was seen at the US embassy visa interview section a day or so ago, a short while before she announced that she was going to the US and Germany to speak at some international human rights conference.

Guess who is the biggest financier of these international human rights organizations who organize these conferences?

If De Lima was processing her visa only a few days before her departure, it’s very possible this trip and speaking engagement were arranged at the last minute.

She’s so badly covered in sh*t now after the testimonies of Ronnie Dayan and Kerwin Espinosa, so the international “human rights” overlo…

I was 17, so enamored with the idea of a Ninoy Aquino presidency that never was. And how I hate those damned Marcoses. I got my real stories on politics via the underground media back then, especially the reformatted Mr & Ms magazine, which became the Inquirer of today, and Veritas.

Another source was my favorite teacher back in HS, Ms Isabelita Viray, wherein we will discuss the Aquino-Marcos rivalry in a Math class.

Kris Aquino was still a cute bespectacled teen, and one could only wish that she stayed that way all throughout. But then... oh never mind.

Jim Paredes was a cult hero, and his "Handog ng Pilipino" masterpiece was battling it out with "Magkaisa" (sung by Virna Lisa and composed by Tito Sotto) as the new national anthem. Like Kris, I just want to remember JP for what he was in 1986. When he turned his back on this country when Erap was elected, and decided to move his family to Australia, Jim should have…

...the President’s mental and physical health is certainly cause for grave concern for the Filipino people. Who are his doctors? What do they say about it?
But during the campaign for the 2010 elections, she vehemently protested the request to make public the psychiatric evaluation of then candidate Noynoy Aquino when Sen. Alan Cayetano questioned it.

The Yellowtards are now scraping the bottom of the barrel to find issues with which to discredit the President. It was Rappler which first posted about this. They assumed that Elizabeth Zimmermann would bad mouth her ex husband in public to derail his candidacy. To their surprise and consternation, she even rose from her sickbed to embark on a bus tour of Mindanao and the Visayas to campaign for her ex husband. But what's really amazing is how Mareng Winnie's husband was able to put up with her.

A lot of friends have told me how I am being tarred and feathered in other people’s walls and some of them have even shown me screen caps. Screen caps I don’t bother to look at.

And I don’t look at them because it doesn’t matter to me one bit what they say. The language of hate is wounding and I have more than enough wounds on my plate, thank you. If I’m going to get wounded at all, it’ll be by the hands of people who matter to me. Not strangers I care nothing for.

Also, I tell my friends there is no need to defend me. That that is all part and parcel of democracy. I love it when they do, yes but there is no pressing need to. I would rather they focus their time and energy on worthier pursuits like sex. (O diba, nagising kayo? 😃)

But also, I have a deeper understanding of my freedom.

There is a price I pay for writing with the kind of freedom I do. And it is this—that I awaken the dirt in other …

The call of Loida Nicolas Lewis for President Duterte to resign and step down from the Presidency effectively signals the start of hostilities between the Dutertetards and the Yellowtards. Let's speculate on what may be the outcomes given several scenarios.

What position will the Left take? Will they join forces with the Yellowtards and break off from the peace talks which has only progressed this rapidly under Duterte? Or will they accept Duterte's uncompromising stand on the Marcos burial and go on to forge a peace agreement for the first time in forty-eight years?

The AFP and the PNP. Both institutions have officers occupying sensitive positions who are graduates of the Philippine Military Academy. If the Yellowtards forge an alliance with the left, how can the Rightists in the AFP and PNP reconcile themselves with ousting a President who's sympathetic to the Leftists by joining an oust-Duterte movement which counts the same Leftists as their allies? The only way the …